Here’s another thing about film festivals, and this one’s probably more obvious than yesterday’s supposed insight: they’ll wipe you out.

I’ll tell people that my schedule involves watching five or six movies a day for however many days and they’ll seem appalled, as if that’s some strenuous activity. It’s not coal mining, I always think. What’s so tiring about sitting and watching movies? Then I’ll get there on the day and around Movie No. 4, wouldn’t you know it, you just get kind of weary. Still not tired, really, but it’s harder to concentrate. I actually didn’t go to my scheduled Movie No. 5, “Francine,” putting it off for its next screening on a day where I have a lot less scheduled to see. And when I got back to my hotel room last night after five movies and 12 hours from theater to theater, I fell right to sleep, this recap be damned.

All this is to say that as a reader of film criticism and a person who has attended a handful of film festivals and run myself ragged on a packed schedule, I’m always a little wary of critics who write long reviews of things they see there. Especially difficult movies. Can you imagine seeing, for example, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” as your fourth movie out of six at a festival? A lot of movies—maybe most movies—require a bit of consideration that just isn’t able to be accorded to them in a festival setting, especially if you’re tweeting an instant reaction too and then coming back to your hotel room at the end of a long day and grinding one of these out. Anything that seemed frustrating or obtuse or ambiguous during the day would probably just piss you off in the evenings.

That’s not going to stop me from doing what I’m doing here, but I’m conscious of that being an issue, and I wanted you to be too. Even though I’m a fan of pretty much everything I saw on Day 2, for my part. Let’s knock these little recaps out:

“Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines” (*** out of four)

This documentary wasn’t originally on my schedule, but having arrived at the Prytania Theatre massively early for no apparent reason, I picked up a ticket for it. And I’m glad I did. “Wonder Women” is right up my alley, not only a description and history of DC Comics’ most identifiable superheroine but an examination of representations of women in powerful action-heroine roles throughout the years. Gloria Steinem and Kathleen Hanna are among its interviews, as the film traces Wonder Woman as comics character and symbol from her creation in the 1940s through the present day. There are also some wonderful interviews with comics fans, including a few children, who describe why the character so appeals to them. It’s insightful and visually interesting and a must-see for anyone with an interest in feminist pop culture criticism, and a fun look at a comic book character who has gotten the short shrift these days.

“Trash Dance” (*** out of four)

“Trash Dance” is a compassionate and loving portrait of a very unusual interpretive dance project undertaken a few years ago in Austin, Texas. The film follows choreographer Allison Orr in her quest to organize Austin sanitation workers for a project showcasing the movements they and their trucks perform every day. Riding along with these workers for months beforehand, Orr (and the film’s audience) gets to know these people and their families, dreams, second jobs and quirks, leading up to her creation of a dance project based around their jobs and talents. While I feel like “Trash Dance” doesn’t capture the finished product as well as I would have liked in its climactic performance (and maybe that’s just a limitation of film), it’s a funny and kind-hearted film about these people coming together toward the common goal of such a spectacle.

“From Nothing, Something” (** ½ out of four)

A documentary examining the creative process, “From Nothing, Something” features interviews with architects, musicians, writers, fashion designers, scientists and many others to explore the central thesis of how they come up with their ideas and how they express them. These include Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara, comedian Maria Bamford, novelist and Academy Award nominee Tom Perrotta and chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, and the film cuts quickly between interviews to find the common truths and ideas they all share. This results in a visually appealing and witty film, but a scattered one that never seems to hold with any one idea to establish the necessary context. Of course, this is a hard subject to come up with any hard truths for, and being a creative and clever documentary about creative and clever people may be a fine enough goal in its own right.

“Supporting Characters” (*** out of four)

I struggled with illness during the 2012 Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, which, so what, but in so doing I missed the opening night film, “Supporting Characters,” which now I finally caught up with here at NOFF. And I’m glad I did; comedies about the filmmaking process invariably hold a special place in my heart, and “Supporting Characters” is a sturdy and occasionally very funny entry. Alex Karpovsky and Tarik Lowe star as two best friends and film editors mired in a particularly difficult film project with an uncooperative director (Kevin Corrigan). As they both struggle in their professional lives, their personal lives aren’t much easier; Lowe’s girlfriend (Melonie Diaz) seems remarkably inconsistent in personality, while Karpovsky’s fiancée (Sophia Takal) is asking for a pre-nup just as he is tempted by the film’s lead actress (Arielle Kebbel). This is charmingly written and appealingly performed stuff.

“Smashed” (*** out of four)

“Smashed” is already playing in New York and Los Angeles in limited release, but who knows when it’ll come any closer to any city I might be inhabiting, so I took the opportunity to check out this low-key, light drama about alcoholism, featuring a heavily-hyped performance from Mary Elizabeth Winstead (“Grindhouse,” “Live Free or Die Hard”). Her performance was as advertised. She plays Kate, a barely-functioning alcoholic who seeks treatment after a series of close calls and incidents finally drive her to Alcoholics Anonymous. With the help of her sponsor (Oscar winner Octavia Spencer) and a sympathetic co-worker (Nick Offerman, “Parks and Recreation”), Kate gets sober – but her husband (Aaron Paul, “Breaking Bad”) isn’t ready to give up the fun, booze-soaked life he had been living. “Smashed” is finely-observed and well-performed, even though in movies like this I sometimes find the comedic elements potentially incongruous, and I don’t much care for a subplot involving a fake pregnancy and Kate’s boss, played by Megan Mullaly. But Winstead does indeed give quite a performance, and “Smashed” is brisk and well worth seeing.

Coming tomorrow: A recap of NOFF Day 3, including David Cross vs. the apocalypse and “Sopranos” creator David Chase’s big-screen directorial debut, “Not Fade Away.”